After Midnight
by daynaa
Summary: EC Oneshot. Generated challenge fiction. Sort of silly, romantic.


A/N: So I went on the random generator thing that gives you three things, two people and a line, or whatever and I'm picking a few, and including them in this story to make it fun, as I have writers block:

Eric Delko / Calleigh Duquesne / after midnight, Eric Delko / Alexx Woods / in the rain, Calleigh Delko / Marisol Delko / breakfast. Duquesne / Peter Elliott / open adoration, Calleigh Duquesne / Marisol Delko / unwinding, Horatio Caine / Rick Stetler / face to face, Eric

This will be SO random. You have been warned! And of course, CE!

--&

Marisol Delko was pouring herself a cup of coffee to go with her breakfast when the doorbell rang. Sighing, she set the coffee pot down on the machine and padded towards the door. Looking through the hole in the door designed to let you see who was on the other side, she saw her younger brother looking back at her, impatiently. She unlocked the door, and walked back to the kitchen. He'd follow her.

"Mari!" He called as he entered.

"Good morning Eric." She answered as he entered the kitchen, hearing her voice.

"Pour me a cup too, would you?" He more or less stated as he sat down clumsily at her kitchen table. Marisol complied with a sigh. Turning around to give him the coffee, and eat her breakfast, which he was already eating, she noticed how bad he looked.

"You look like hell." She commented with a smirk.

"Thanks Marisol. You're looking rather nice today too."

"No really Eric, what's up?" She asked, setting the coffee down and moving back to the counter putting herself on another bagel, since Eric seemed to be eating the one she'd already made.

"I couldn't sleep." Eric shrugged.

"You say that like it's normal." She commented. He was in a vague mood today.

"For me it is." He shrugged again. "I can hardly ever sleep."

"Then how do you work?" She wondered.

"I just do." Eric sighed, rubbing his temples. He was getting a headache, which was not going to help him get through the day.

"Well there's got to be a reason you can't sleep. Try and figure it out." Marisol suggested.

"I know the reason." Eric mumbled. Marisol frowned. Then why wouldn't he… oh.

"Then talk to her." She suggested.

"She would never… wait! How did you know…" Eric trailed off. Caught.

"I just did." She shrugged, "And obviously I was right. So who is it? Please tell me it's not that stupid…"

"Jennifer?" Eric supplied.

"Jennifer," Marisol continued, "because she isn't worth losing sleep over. I talked to her for less than five minutes, and I knew that."

"It's not Jaclyn." Eric sighed.

"Jennifer." Marisol corrected.

"Whatever." Eric smiled a bit at that. He knew his sister didn't approve of the way he treated the girls he went out with, but when was with them, he treated them wonderfully… it's just, he didn't like to be with the same person for more than a week, and neither did they. Too many monogamous relationships as a teen, he figured.

"Then who is it?" She pressed. Eric made no move to answer, though she knew he knew, as he continued to slowly eat the bagel. "Eric, tell me. Please?"

"You'll tease me." Eric pouted.

"How old are we?" Marisol asked sarcastically. "I'm just worried about you Eric. And possibly her."

"Cute, Mari." He smirked, obviously not amused.

"Do I know her?" She asked.

"Not well, but you've met her a few times." Eric decided to play along with this guessing game.

"Does she work with you?"

"Yes."

"Is it Calleigh?" Eric continued to eat his bagel. He shouldn't have answered 'does she work with you' because that narrowed the choices down to two. And Alexx was married. "You're in love with Calleigh?" Marisol smiled. It was cute. Her little brother, in love… with Calleigh.

"I didn't say I was in love with her." Eric defended.

"So it is her!" Marisol grinned victoriously. "You're so easy."

"I try." Eric rolled his eyes. "So what do I do?"

"Well, lucky for you, I have met Calleigh more than a few times." Marisol smiled brightly at her brother. She'd been meaning to tell him this sometime anyways.

"What do you mean?" Eric furrowed his brow.

"Well, we're actually quite good friends." Marisol explained.

"When did this happen?" Eric was interested now.

"Well, you introduced us a few times… and I was out one night with a guy, who I ditched early on in the evening, as he was being a jerk and then I saw Calleigh at the bar, and we got to talking, and realized we actually liked talking to each other. So we continued to do so."

"And no one told me about this… because?" Eric wondered.

"Why would we? It's none of your business who my friends are. Or Calleigh's for that matter."

"I know." Eric shrugged. "But do you think you could talk to her for me?"

"Why don't you talk to her? Aren't you going to be late or something?"

"Shit. I'll talk to you about this later, okay? Bye Mari, thanks for breakfast." Eric called on his way out. Maybe her little brother was growing up, after all.

--&

When Eric Delko got to work, he went straight to the locker room. He knew he was on the verge of being late, and wanting to prevent that, he was going as quickly as possible. Tossing his keys, and various other items in the locker, he strapped on his belt, which held his gun, and badge, and headed towards the break room. In all of his haste, he didn't see Calleigh or Speed's wild gestures for him not to enter the room before he did so, and he found himself in world war three minus the weapons. Of course, when did Horatio Caine ever need weapons? The man could disarm a machine gun with his eyes. Currently, he wasn't disarming any hazardous weapons, but was sitting face to face with his archrival of the year, Rick Stetler. What were they fighting over today? Who knew? They fought about anything, from the latest cases victims, to Yelina Salas. He nodded his head, and smiled slightly across the room at Calleigh. Speed too, but mostly Calleigh. She offered a heart-warming smile and a small wave in return, Speed, a courteous nod. Making his way carefully across the room, he came to stand beside his two friends.

"What's up?" He mouthed to Calleigh.

"We're not sure, we're too afraid to ask." She mouthed back with a roll of her eyes. They continued to watch the two men stare each other down, face to face, for a few minutes before Speed got beyond bored.

"Horatio, are there any new cases today? Delko and I closed ours yesterday,"

"And I haven't had a new case in two days." Calleigh piped up.

"Enjoy it while it lasts." Was all they got in reply from Horatio, and all it took for them to be out in the room before one of the men finally snapped at the other.

"Can you spell tension?" Eric whistled as the door shut behind them.

"I know." Calleigh nodded. "Oh look, there's Yelina." Sure enough, the curly, longhaired woman was making her way down the deserted CSI hallway towards them.

"Hey." She smiled warmly at them, turning towards the break room door.

"Is it imperative that you go in there?" Calleigh asked.

"No, not really." Yelina shrugged. "I was looking for Horatio."

"You might not want to then." Eric put in.

"Things are sort of… unsettled in there." Speed finished.

"Oh." Yelina shrugged. "Okay. I'll find him later."  
"Good idea." Eric smiled.

"But I'll just tell you three, that Special Agent Elliot is on his way here to double check the evidence on the case you just closed. I don't have details." Yelina explained as she began walking back the way she'd come from. Wonderful, Eric thought. Peter Elliot's adoration for Calleigh was so open, it was sick. That's just what he needed to see right now.

"Agent Elliot," Calleigh called to the man who was coming down the hallway, which Yelina had disappeared into. "That was quick, we only just heard about your coming here."

"I hope it's no interruption." Peter told her, smiling a full smile. Open adoration. Sick.

"No problem at all." Calleigh reassured him. "But the case you need to review was really Speed's case, from last week. So you should talk to him. I'm sure Eric and I can find some reports to write. We'll leave you two to it. Talk to you later, Agent Elliot." Calleigh dragged Eric off towards her lab.

"Reports to write?" Eric raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't feel like talking with him." Calleigh shrugged. "Sorry for dragging you along…"

"No problem at all." Eric smiled. "If anyone is Peter Elliot's number one fan, it's not me." Calleigh just smiled at him as they continued towards the gun lab. She did love her guns.

--&

A half hour later, Eric was still standing a few feet behind Calleigh, clad in goggles and ear covers so he wouldn't go deaf as he watched Calleigh test fire her guns. He loved to watch her here, in her element. It was then that her cell phone rang. He didn't know how he managed to here it, but he did.

"Calleigh!" He called. She didn't hear him. "Calleigh!" He called, louder this time.

"What?" She set the gun down, putting on the safety as she removed her ear covers.

"Phone." He pointed to her desk, and she smiled absentmindedly.

"Usually I turn it off, but I guess I forgot." She walked briskly over to where the phone was ringing and vibrating on the table and picked it up. "Duquesne." She answered, professionally.

"_Hey Cal!"_ Came Marisol's voice over the phone, and Eric saw Calleigh's face light up.

"Hey Mari!" She greeted her friend. "What's up?"

"_I was wondering if you wanted to meet for drinks after work?" _Marisol asked.

"Sure." Calleigh nodded, "That sounds fun."

"_And could you see if you can convince my brother to come? I haven't seen him in forever. There are some things I need to talk about with him." _Marisol asked. She loved her brother, and Calleigh was a wonderful girl. She knew they'd work well together. So why not help a little?

"I was going to ask if you would have minded anyways." Calleigh nodded. "Will do."

_"Thanks Cal, see you later at… club Tango?" _Marisol suggested.

"Sounds good, bye Mari!" Calleigh replied before hanging up the phone.

"Was that my sister?" Eric raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. She wanted to know if I wanted to get drinks after shift." Calleigh told him, "And if you wanted to come. She said she hadn't seen you in forever."

"But I just saw her…" Eric started, then realized what Marisol was doing, "I guess it has been a while." Calleigh just smiled. "So it sounds like fun?"

"For sure. Now I must get back to firing this gun." She told him with a wink. Calleigh and Marisol unwinding after work. Him in tow. It would be an interesting night. He couldn't wait for shift to end.

--&

By the end of the day, the plan was that Marisol, Calleigh, Eric, Alexx and Speed would go out for drinks at Club Tango. Unfortunately for Eric, and the City of Miami, a B&E with a side of murder had been called in three hours before the end of shift, and Eric was the one chosen to go to post. So now he was in the morgue with Alexx while everyone else was waiting for them at the club. Maybe Marisol was investigating as to whether Calleigh liked him or not, though he knew that was likely not what Marisol and Calleigh were doing. Especially with Speed present.

"You okay?" Alexx asked.

"My mind's just not here today, sorry Alexx." Eric smiled sheepishly.

"That's okay. I'm distracted too." Alexx told him. "But that's it. I'll know more when I open him up tomorrow."

"Great." Eric smiled. "You ready to go out for drinks?"

"Sure." Alexx smiled. "I haven't been out in a while, a few drinks can't hurt."

"Damn right." Eric smiled as he left the morgue. "Since we'll both end up taking cabs home anyways, do you want a ride to the club?"

"Sure Eric." Alexx answered. "Meet you out front in fifteen minutes?"

"Sure." Eric nodded, before heading out of the morgue.

--&

Fifteen minutes later, Eric was standing outside the Crime Lab waiting for Alexx to join him, and just his luck, as he stepped outside, it had started to pour. It wasn't really a problem, since the crime lab had a covered area out front that he could stand under, but he wasn't in the mood for rain. It always made him tired, and not to mention sad. He was already feeling enough of both of those things.

"Hey Eric." Alexx said, as she stepped outside. "Sorry for keeping you waiting."

"Ah, I was ready early." Eric shrugged.

"Okay." Alexx gave him a look, showing she didn't believe him, but was grateful for him not making her feel bad. "Let's get going, the others will be curious as to where we are."

"Yeah." Eric nodded, shivering as they stepped into the downpour. "It's weird, it never rains like this in Miami."

"It is rare." Alexx agreed. "I enjoy it when it comes, though. Nice change from the sun some days."

"Yeah." Eric agreed faintly. He usually loved the rain when it rained, but not today. If it was say, Calleigh with him, he would probably enjoy every drop of rain. Though if it were Calleigh with him, he would have to suppress the urge to kiss her, he always did, but with the rain adding the movie-esque feel to the scenery, it would be that much harder to resist. Not that he had anything against Alexx, but he and Alexx in the rain just wasn't as enjoyable as he and Calleigh in the rain. Maybe later.

--&

At Club Tango, Calleigh and Marisol were having as good a time as ever, checking out the hottest guys, watching Speed hit on girls, and declining offers for drinks and dances left and right. Neither of them, for similar reasons, had had more than one drink yet.

"Aren't in a drinking mood tonight?" Marisol asked Calleigh, though she hadn't had anymore to drink than her friend.

"Ah, I'll have more later." Calleigh shrugged. "Pacing myself."

"Any particular reason?" Marisol pressed, knowing Calleigh wouldn't mind. She didn't divulge information about her reason willingly, but Marisol found that when she prodded, Calleigh didn't mined answering, for the most part. This question, though, caught Calleigh slightly off guard. Normally, when she was waiting for a specific guy to ask her to dance enough to want to stay sober, she would explain it all to Marisol in detail. But when the man in question was Marisol's brother… that made things a little different.

"Well, there's a guy." Calleigh allowed.

"I knew it." Marisol grinned victoriously.

"You're incorrigible." Calleigh shook her head in mock disgust.

"He must be pretty special if you're staying sober for him." Marisol continued. If it wasn't Eric, he was going to be heartbroken.

"He is." Calleigh nodded, the starry look in her eyes not lost on Marisol.

"You must know him well." She continued further.

"Very well." Calleigh answered.   
"Have I met him?" Marisol asked, knowing it would be the defining question. At this, Calleigh laughed aloud. Things were looking bright for Marisol, or rather, for Eric.

"Yes. More often than I have. It's Eric." Calleigh admitted, and Marisol's smile grew in size.

"That's so cute." She gushed. Calleigh flushed a bit red, which only made Marisol smile more.

"I guess." Calleigh shrugged. "I wish him and Alexx would hurry up… do you think he likes me too?" Her train of thought was everywhere.

"Yeah." Marisol nodded. She knew Eric wouldn't want her to tell Calleigh that, but it would make things so much worse if she lied, or said she didn't know.

"Really?" Calleigh's face lit up. She couldn't wait for Eric to get here now, more so than before.

"Speak of the devil." Marisol murmured as she spotted her brother and Alexx heading towards them.

"Mari! Calleigh!" Eric called, and they both turned towards the approaching pair.

"Hey guys." Alexx called over the music as they settled into the booth. "Sorry that we're a little wet. It's pouring out there."

"It is?" Marisol asked, making a face.

"Yeah." Eric nodded.

"Where's Tim?" Alexx wondered, and both Marisol and Calleigh pointed to the direction of the bar where Speed could be seen chatting up a young brunette. A drunk young brunette.

"He's such a player." Marisol laughed.

"A drunk player." Alexx noted with a laugh.

"Very." Calleigh nodded. "How many has he had anyways?"

"I lost count after four." Marisol giggled.

"Maybe someone should take him home." Calleigh suggested.

"I'll do it." Alexx stood up.

"You just got here." Marisol motioned for her to sit down. "We can call him a cab before he gets himself into too much trouble."

"Nah, it's fine." Alexx reassured her. "It probably wasn't a good night for me to come, I didn't realize how late it was, and I didn't call home… they're probably wondering where I am."

"Oh okay." Marisol shrugged. "Goodnight then."

"Bye Alexx!" Calleigh waved.

"See you." Eric put in, as Alexx made her way to the bar. The three watched silently, save the occasional laugh, as Alexx got Speed out of the club. Eric realized how pathetic he must usually look at the end of the night.

"By the looks of things, you're not too popular tonight Eric." Marisol giggled to her brother, looking around. It was true, Eric noticed. He'd been so busy watching Speed and Alexx, that he hadn't noticed the fact that there were quite a few guys around the seating area shooting daggers at him, no doubt due to his companions. Though it pained him to admit, as she was his sister, he knew she was beautiful, and well, Calleigh… Calleigh was stunning as well.

"Looks like it." He smirked.

"Well, I am going to go to the bar, and get us a round of drinks. I'll be back." Marisol announced. She needed to let these two have some time to talk. And they had better talk.

"Okay. Thanks Mari." Eric nodded.

"Thanks." Calleigh echoed. Alone. With Eric. She should have known Marisol would be making a quick exit for a while soon after Alexx had.

"So." Eric stated.

"Do you want to dance?" Calleigh blurted out.

"Sure." Eric smiled, replying immediately. Both were taken by surprise slightly at Calleigh's question, but as they were now hand in hand so not to get lost in the crowd on their way to the dance floor, neither minded. They danced, and danced and danced until they were too hot to dance any longer.

"Do you think it's still raining out?" Calleigh asked, slightly out of breath. She was positive that Eric liked her back after their display of dancing.

"Most likely." Eric answered. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, she was tugging on his arm, leading him to the exit of the club. Once they got outside, they were immediately enveloped into the downpour. It was almost as loud as the music, especially to deafened ears due to said music.

"It's nice out here." Calleigh sighed, leaning back, resting her head against Eric's chest.

"It is." Eric agreed. The rain did feel nice after all the sweaty dancing, and having Calleigh sitting so close to him was more than nice. But yet again, the overwhelming need to kiss her was only encouraged by the rain. Glancing at his watch, he noticed the time. "It's after midnight, you know."

"I figured." Calleigh nodded. "But I'm not tired."

"Me neither." Eric sighed. He had been getting tired before, but now, having her close like this, he wouldn't be able to get tired. Thus began another sleepless night. "But I'm never tired these days."

"Why not?" Calleigh asked, turning around so she was facing him now.

"I can't get someone… something off my mind." He stammered. Her proximity was overwhelming. He was sober, yet felt more intoxicated than he had in a while.

"What is it?" She asked, tilting her head up so she was looking straight into his eyes, as if begging him to say what she wanted him to say. He sensed that. He loved the way their connection went so much deeper than words, and that they both knew it before they could say they really had a connection at all. He leaned towards her, just a bit, and she stood on her tiptoes the slightest little bit, and that was all it took before their lips were connected. She tasted sweet, like he had imagined she would, and he couldn't think of anything but how soft her lips were. How unreal this all was. And then it was over, as quickly as it had began.

"That." He answered, breathless. She pulled him back in, her hands moving from her sides to the back of his neck, deepening the kiss this time.

"Will you be able to sleep tonight?" She asked breathlessly as they pulled apart.

"Not unless you sleep with me." He replied, and she gave him a look. "Not like that…" He clarified, "Just near me. So I know you're there." She fell in love with him just a little bit more right there. He was unbelievable sweet.

"I'd love to." She nodded, "And maybe we should get home. After all, it is after midnight."

"It is." He nodded as they headed to his car. This was love.

--&

A/N: Corny ending? As always. I'm tired, and it's bedtime after I post this. Review please!


End file.
